Moving Pictures

With a background in painting, Karen Yasinsky wanted to make movies without crews. So she set up an animation stand at her Baltimore studio and started shooting short films with puppets and archival materials. “It made sense to make my own actors,” she says. Her solitary process spawned an anti-narrative...

By Kyle Harris

October 2, 2014

Audio By Carbonatix

[
          {
            "name": "GPT - Billboard - Slot Inline - Content - Labeled - No Desktop",
            "component": "23668565",
            "insertPoint": "2",
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
          },{
            "name": "STN Player - Float - Mobile Only ",
            "component": "23853568",
            "insertPoint": "2",
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "2"
          },{
            "name": "Editor Picks",
            "component": "17242653",
            "insertPoint": "4",
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "1"
          },{
            "name": "Inline Links",
            "component": "18838239",
            "insertPoint": "8th",
            "startingPoint": 8,
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
            "maxInsertions": 25
          },{
            "name": "GPT - 2x Rectangles Desktop, Tower on Mobile - Labeled",
            "component": "24956856",
            "insertPoint": "8th",
            "startingPoint": 8,
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "7",
            "maxInsertions": 25 
          
          },{
            "name": "Inline Links",
            "component": "18838239",
            "insertPoint": "8th",
            "startingPoint": 12,
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
            "maxInsertions": 25
          },{
            "name": "GPT - Leaderboard to Tower - Slot Auto-select - Labeled",
            "component": "17676724",
            "insertPoint": "8th",
            "startingPoint": 12,
            "requiredCountToDisplay": "11",
            "maxInsertions": 25
          }
        ]

With a background in painting, Karen Yasinsky wanted to make movies without crews. So she set up an animation stand at her Baltimore studio and started shooting short films with puppets and archival materials. “It made sense to make my own actors,” she says.

Her solitary process spawned an anti-narrative style that mixes found footage, drawings and stop-motion animation. She mines literature, art, music and films for ideas to obsess over; suicide, violence and suffering are three of her chosen topics. “Something that is really powerful for me sticks in my head and it becomes a problem that I have to reconcile. Something that I love is usually unsettling in some way,” she says.

Her short film, "After Hours," explores the idea of random violence. Instead of the stories, explosions and chaos expected from Hollywood action films, Yasinsky’s approach to her subject is measured yet fragmented. Violence shatters life’s quiet moments -- not with fanfare and drama, but with blunt interruption followed by more silence.

Tonight, Yasinsky will present a selection of her short films at First Person Cinema at the CU Visual Arts Complex, 1085 18th Street in Boulder, at 7 p.m. Tickets cost $4. For more information, go to internationalfilmseries.com/first_person_cinema.
Mon., Oct. 6, 7 p.m., 2014

Kyle Harris has been Westword’s Culture Editor since 2016, writing about the arts, music and film.

A message from Culture Editor Kristen Fiore: If you value independent journalism, please consider making a contribution to support our continued coverage of Denver’s vibrant culture and arts scenes.

Support Today